Oil Change International.
November 2022
Download the briefing.
Translations: Japanese
This briefing, “Japan’s Dirty Secret: World’s top fossil fuel financier is fueling climate chaos and undermining energy security,” reveals that Japan is the world’s largest public financier of fossil fuel projects, providing 10.6 billion USD per year between 2019 and 2021. Japan has been leading the drive to expand gas consumption in Asia and is the world’s leading financier of gas infrastructure globally, spending USD 6.7 billion on gas projects on average each year between 2019 and 2021.
Despite a G7 commitment to end international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022, the Japanese government has stated it will continue financing upstream oil and gas developments, fossil fuel projects that are inconsistent with the 1.5°C limit under the Paris Agreement. Additionally, the briefing finds that the Japanese government is leaning heavily on false solutions to mitigate its gas expansion, including hydrogen, ammonia co-firing, and carbon capture and storage (CCS), which Prime Minister Fumio Kishida admitted as “decarbonizing while still using fossil fuels.”
We argue that these false solutions clearly prolong the use of fossil fuels and delay the transition to clean energy, and that Japan’s fossil-fueled “decarbonization” efforts are a smoke screen for Japan’s hidden agenda — protecting Japanese business interests over people and planet. If Japan is serious about demonstrating climate leadership and supporting a regional “zero emissions community,” it should immediately end public finance for fossil fuels, as promised at this year’s G7 Summit, and support a just transition to renewable energy.
